Roscosmos Said The Liftoff Of A Soyuz-2.1b Rocket Went As Planned

Russia on Wednesday launched a Soyuz-2.1b rocket carrying 19 satellites from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far eastern portion of the country.

And while Roscosmos says that the launch went as planned, something went wrong after the Fregat upper stage separated before deploying the satellites.

The primary mission was to place a Meteor-M satellite into low-Earth orbit as part of Russia's constellation of weather satellites. Geekwire reports that the secondary payloads were 10 small satellites for San Francisco-based Spire Global, which were to have been part of the company's Earth observation network, and two remote-sensing satellites made by Silicon Valley space company Astro Digital.

The Russian space agency said in a statement posted on its website that, according the flight program, the first three stages of Soyuz-2.1b delivered the ascent unit into the specified intermediate orbit. "However, during the first planned communication session with the [Meteor-M] satellite, it was not possible to establish a connection due to its absence in the target orbit. Currently, the information is being analyzed."

Interfax and Space Intel Report have cited unnamed sources who speculated that the failure was caused by a glitch in the Fregat's control software.

(Image provided by Roscosmos)

FMI: Original Report